Acts of Reparation follows two friends as they explore what reparations means to them. Selina, who is Black, and Macky, who is white, have been friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years. Genealogy nerds, they travel south to reclaim and reckon with their roots. In the process they move from awkward outsiders toward belonging to broad kin networks who come along for the ride.

From kitchen tables to porches, lost cemeteries to discovered diaries, their journeys lead to unexpected opportunities that transform their friendship, families and communities. In Monroe, Louisiana, Selina gathers stories from a sisterhood of her great aunties who together sleuth to uncover the buried tales of their ancestors. In Penfield, Georgia, Macky challenges generations of his kin to dismantle privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby. In Acts of Reparation, we see that small acts can lead to big change.

We all know the benefit of small acts of kindness. What we’ve learned over the last five years is that there is also a benefit to small acts of reparation. Each individual act may not change the country or the world in the same way that large policy changes might, but they can profoundly impact a family, a community and a region. We have witnessed it time and time again over the last five years, and experienced it first-hand. In the end, we believe it is these small acts that lead to the big change for which we long.